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Migrants are still on the move. A fairly heavy movement was picked up on the ATX station (Seattle) radar. It was a bit more moderate down here in the Metro Area (RTX), and concentrated in the east counties.

I sill haven’t resolved the disc space issue. But, i am leaning toward starting a new blog with forward and backward references. I would like the new blog to be as robust as this one (information pages and reference links) but that will take a lot of time to do. So it will be an “off-season” project. Which means the real purpose of this current blog – to leave an archive of the radar images – has reached its unfortunate and technical end.

So, this is the second to the last post for this blog. The next one will be with a link to the new blog. But i’m not sure when that will be.

In the mean time, all of the tools you need to track migration can be found in both the “Pages” section and in the links on the right hand side of the page.

Birds were jamming last night! Decent conditions, light northerly winds on a clear night across the Pacific Northwest.

The grand passage of the Greater White-fronted Geese yesterday – wow! Probably a once in a lifetime experience. From the Portland Basin to the Southern Coast reports came in of GWFG in the thousands passing overhead. A remarkable event.

Anyway i added the Seattle radar loop today because it was packed with birds and i don’t think i’ve posted one from there this season. So here it is, your moment of zen:

Winds of the Earth

Base Reflectivity – ATX

Base Reflectivity – RTX

Oh, look at the RTX loop and see if you can spot the Barn Swallows going to roost, Starts around 00:00 UTC.

A high pressure ridge is building just off shore. The leading edge is not quite here yet so the north winds associated with that are probably a day out. While that bodes well for the weekend weather it will slow north bound birds down.

Last night under neutral conditions we had some heavy movement and that will bring the next pulse of migrants into the region.

No word on Western Wood Pewee or Willow Flycatchers yet for the Portland Metro area.

There isn’t any new migrant reports so this has to be staging waterfowl. I am still puzzled about the density of birds headed up the spine of the Cascades. Perhaps they use the Columbia Gorge to get to the east side?

Anyway, since it was a nice night to take wing and it looks like the next couple of days, maybe not so much, i put in all three PNW radar loops in today’s gallery. RTX is Scappoose, LGX is Gray’s Harbor, and ATX is Seattle.

Some rather unstable weather, WNW winds, it’s late in the season …. and still there is a sea of feathers overhead. Well, maybe just a puddle, but impressive none the less.

As the high pressure ridge builds in behind our recent low we can expect the winds to shift to a more northerly component, but the skies should clear. So it will depend on the strength of the winds tomorrow night to determine the magnitude of the last covered flight of the season. I’m hoping the winds are light and the sky is filled with the remnants of the feathered travelers. The past few nights i have regularly heard the nocturnal flight calls of Swainson’s Thrush – it’s comforting, and brings a bit of joy to my world.

Before we take a look at the loops: “Message Date: May 28 2014 15:26:44 KRTX MAY HAVE PERIODIC DATA LOSS TODAY FROM 28/16Z THROUGH 29/02Z DUE TO AN AWIP S UPGRADE AT WFO PORTLAND.”

I have no idea what that means and i don’t really see any problems in the loop, but some more discerning eye might so, there you have it.

Less than ideal conditions, but nothing extreme. A light westerly wind and a few rain cells to dodge – that’s about it. So the laggards continue to lay a line north. Densities are dropping as we are on the last legs of the journey.

Pacific Northwest Radar: (Click on the links below to open the .gif files in a new window)

Winds are light and out of the west — no big deal. Migrants continue to flow north and are now looking to fill in the remaining nesting sites. “FOS” is a term of the past on the listserves. In eastern Oregon a number of expected vagrants are taking up bandwidth as birders flock to Malheur NWR as surely as Buffleheads fly to Manitoba.

This will be the last week for updates this season — unless something mega turns up in the region.

Pacific Northwest Radar: (Click on the links below to open the .gif files in a new window)